Oasis

Since most of my yard
is completely hopeless and looks like this...

...I am really loving how our little flower/rock garden
in front of the house is turning into
a bit of an oasis for the eyes,
so to speak...our hard work is paying off!
Okay, okay, Miguel's hard work...

This bush is commonly used around here for hedges.
I love the color it adds!

Such a scrubby little nopal cactus, but
it sure has beautiful flowers in the spring!

Gorgeous! Sad they only last about
a day or so, though...

The ground cover we have produces the cutest
little button-size blooms that add spots
of color to the green...

The plant in the front smells like onions, but has
such pretty purple flowers!

And my little potted plant on the steps keeps on
putting out these wonderful yellow flowers!
Makes me smile every time I see them!

I took this picture back in March...I think I'd
really like to get some more of these because
not only are they pretty, but this poor plant has
survived some pretty rough treatment
and still puts out those beautiful flowers!

True Beauty

The other day, we noticed this morning glory blooming in our rock/cactus garden...Miguel had forgotten that he had thrown some flower seeds in there earlier this year! We hadn't noticed the morning glory vine because it had become entwined in the black bean vines, so this was a nice surprise. And what a beautiful flower! Unfortunately, it's beauty is rather fleeting, this particular bloom lasted a mere 24 hours...there are more buds opening every day, however, and we look forward to enjoying them while they last!

Here are some more beauties from

our garden...

Yep, my Gracia-girl...isn't she beautiful, too?! :)

Micah's Pumpkin

Micah's pumpkin vine has grown just one pumpkin so far,

but it must have put all of it's energy into it because

it's huge!!! :)

Here's the proud papa...

Those are raspberry plants all around it;

not doing so badly either!

Influenza Update

This morning we had an opportunity to Skype with the 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning Prayer for the Nations at our church and it was awesome! This is the second Skype with groups from our home church in the past month and it was very encouraging...good to know we're being prayed for! We updated them on our family and ministry and the swine flu...mentioning that it had not yet reached our city. After hanging up the Skype call, we were talking to some other friends here and found out that it HAS reached us here! There have been two laboratory confirmed cases here in this city and two more in a city further north, as well as quite a few suspected cases...and so it moves closer to where we are. We keep in mind, however, that this city's population is somewhere around a million people, which makes the chances of our exposure limited, but still...I guess it's the idea of it being so close.

A friend recommended a really good article by Answers in Genesis that gives good perspective on the entire issue. You can read it here. I really appreciated their information (since I know it's reliable) and their recommendations. This swine flu isn't exactly the killer flu that has no treatment available, and yet it is a strong flu that we would be wise to avoid if at all possible. One reason for my concern is simply that our family has really struggled with health issues (mostly colds/upper respiratory icks) in the past few months and I know our immune systems are down. And yet, just like in any other situation, we know our lives are in God's hands and we are confident that He has our future in His hands...

In the meantime, we continue to hang out here at home for the most part (going out means more exposure to more people). We were excited to get some plants for our garden on Friday! Micah's teacher at school gave us some tomato plants, raspberries, and some other things that Miguel and the kids enjoyed planting. :)

And I apologize that these paragraphs are kinda squished together...I cannot get the spacing to do what I want!!!! And at this point, I'm too cranky to try to figure it out...seems like this is a good time for a nap...LOL!

Micah and Jojo in the 'garden'.

Posing for the camera, as usual! :D

Miguel rigged up a bit of shade for the plants...

Garbage for the compost pile...
Close-up of the cactus...they are so cute!